Marina Eckler

My art takes poetic license with text and found objects, making declarations that are both sincere and linguistically complicated. I hope to reinvent language, moving past gendered and class conscious thinking / speaking.

While scholars debate about whether we’ve entered a period of “post-­feminism” or “fourth wave feminism,” the art practice of working mothers — my art practice — requires a redefinition of the conditions of making art in the context of a “post­-wave” feminism.

My art practice coexists with (and is gen­erated by) family and work life as a point of strength. This is a liberating flexibility: making art in the flow of life rather than fulfilling the romantic notion of the isolated artist sequestered in his or her studio. It’s a practice that follows the literary adage to “write what you know” in conceptual terms. The conditions of my own life, with its myriad demands on my time, have become the immediate source for my art. My drive to work provides important mental wandering; these minutes serve as a pro­visional sketchbook practice that is both meditative and highly focused.